Let me tell you about a dream I had.

This post was submitted to the Middle Tennessee Trans-men Facebook page and then shared with the T-vals page.

A friend recently described a vivid dream he had to me. I would like to share it with you.

He was in a bus station waiting on a bus. When the bus arrived, he was paged, but paged by the wrong name.

My friend is a trans man. He was paged to get on the bus by his name at birth.

He did not get on the bus. He actually went to complain. In the dream, he learned that the station owner had somehow learned his former name. He was informed by staff that this person found it amusing to try to embarrass people, that he shouldn’t be bothered by it.

In the dream, my friend found his response. He walked out into the crowd of customers at the establishment and started his own announcement.

“Attention. Attention. Ladies and gentlemen. The owner would like you to know that there are transsexuals in the building. Yes, that’s right. Transsexuals in the building. Transsexuals. Transsexuals in the building. The owner would like you to know that there is at least one transsexual in the building.”

When he was the last customer left. He stopped his announcement and took a seat.

After he told me the story of the dream (and I did leave some details out), he told me: “They can’t embarrass me like that. I’m not ashamed about being trans. I’m not hiding it. It’s out there. That’s just the way it is. I don’t care.”

And he did in fact mean that was true not only in the dream, but in real life as well. And I can verify that it is true. No, he doesn’t greet every stranger he meets with: “Hello, I’m trans.” However, it’s not a secret either.

It’s not a weapon that can be used against him, because it is a source of pride to him.

He also redirects that pride back into the community. He works to help it. And in doing so, helps himself. Part of the reason he has pride in being trans, is because he appreciates the experiences he has had as part of the trans community.

Personally, I find this insight inspiring. I thought others might as well.